DD-437

The second Woolsey (DD-437) was laid down on 9 October 1939 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron
Works; launched on Lincoln's Birthday 1941; sponsored by Mrs. Irving Spencer; and commissioned on 7 May
1941, Lt. Comdr. William H. Von Dreele in command.

Following a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea, Woolsey joined the Atlantic Fleet at the
beginning of the second week in September. Initially, she served on the Neutrality Patrol, established by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt to keep the war in Europe from spreading to the western hemisphere. For a
time, she also served as a unit in the screen of the newly commissioned battleship North Carolina (BB-55). As
the year 1941 waned and the United States approached closer and closer to active belligerency, Woolsey
began escorting convoys between the United States and Iceland.

The attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II found the destroyer in Iceland
completing the first leg of one such round-trip voyage. War brought a change to Woolsey's range of duties. Her
convoy escort work was broadened to include voyages to the British Isles and Puerto Rico. That duty occupied
her energies until the fall of 1942 when she participated in her first invasion operation.

For Operation "Torch," the invasion of Vichy French-controlled North Africa, Woolsey was assigned
to Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 13 which served as antisubmarine screen for the Center Attack Group, the
Fedhala landing force. That task organization sortied from Hampton Roads, Va., on 24 October and, four days
later, rendezvoused with the other units which comprised Task Force (TF) 34. After a meandering and mercifully
uneventful crossing, the ships reached the vicinity of the Moroccan coast, and each of the three task groups
went their separate ways. Woolsey arrived off Fedhala with the Center Attack Force just before midnight on 7
November. Between 0500 and 0600 the next morning, the troops landed at Fedhala and consolidated their
beachhead quickly. Resistance soon dissipated, and Woolsey seems not to have participated actively in this
phase of the operation other than to conduct antisubmarine patrols against a menace which, at that juncture,
failed to materialize.

Later, however, the German Navy belatedly took a hand in the fracas. U-boats began attacking the
transports. On the 11th, U-173 sank Joseph Hewes (AP-50). Between then
and the 15th, several other attacks
occurred. On the 16th, U-173 returned to the area and probably was the
German submarine responsible for
torpedoing Electra (AK-21). That time though, the U-boat failed to make good her escape. Woolsey, still on
antisubmarine patrol, caught the submarine's reflection with her sonar and, joined by Swanson (DD-443) and
Quick (DD-490), charged to the attack. The three destroyers made a coordinated depth-charge assault that
sent U 173 to oblivion. The following day, Woolsey departed the Moroccan coast to return to Hampton Roads,
where she arrived on the 30th.

After a series of training operations along the eastern seaboard primarily off the New England coast
the destroyer began duty escorting transatlantic convoys in mid-January 1943. On the 14th, she departed New
York with Convoy UGF-4. The convoy reached Casablanca on the 25th, and, after a week in port, Woolsey
escorted the return convoy, GUF-4, back to New York, arriving there on 13 February. At the beginning of March,
she helped shepherd Convoy UGF-6 to Casablanca, then made a brief round-trip voyage from Casablanca to
Gibraltar and back before returning to the east coast with GUF-6 early in April. The warship then plied the
waters of the eastern seaboard until mid-May, conducting antisubmarine patrols and screening coastwise
convoys between Norfolk and New York. On 14 May, Woolsey put to sea from New York with her last
transatlantic convoy, UGS-8. She and her charges reached Casablanca on 1 June, and the destroyer remained
there a fortnight. On the 15th, she departed Morocco, but, instead of returning to the United States as she had
done in the past, she headed via Gibraltar to Algiers on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa.

When Woolsey reached Gibraltar the next day, an Atlantic phase of her wartime career ended, and
the Mediterranean phase began. She reported for duty with the 8th Fleet just in time to participate in the
invasion of Sicily, and operations in Italian waters consumed the bulk of her time and energy during the ensuing
eight months. For the Sicily assault, she drew duty as a fire-support ship for one of three sectors into which the
Licata landing beaches were divided. Save for one brief round-trip voyage to Algiers in mid-July, Woolsey
provided gunfire support for the Army operating ashore on Sicily and helped to defend Allied shipping from
German air attacks. Though she appears not to have accounted for any Luftwaffe aircraft, she did succeed in
destroying an enemy railroad battery with gunfire.

By mid-August, with Sicily secured, she began preparations for the landings on the Italian mainland at
Salerno. For that invasion, the destroyer was assigned to the Southern Attack Force fire support group which
consisted of five cruisers four American and one British and the four destroyers of Woolsey's DesRon 13. In
that capacity, she supported the landings on the southern sector of the Gulf of Salerno shoreline. During the
assault on 9 September, however, she received only one call for fire support. That event occurred just after
1630 when her shore fire control party called upon her to join Bristol (DD-453) in shooting up an enemy tank
formation.

After completing her mission at Salerno the next day, Woolsey returned to more routine missions. She
made voyages between Naples and North African ports escorting supply echelons to the expanding Italian
campaign. While operating outside of Oran, Algeria, on 16 December, she encountered the German submarine
U-78. After forcing the U-boat to surface with a full pattern of depth charges, Woolsey's gunners went to work
and completed the destruction of U-78. The destroyer rescued and made prisoners of the U-boat's 23 survivors.

Late in January 1944, the destroyer returned to amphibious operations, this time as a unit of the Fire
Support Group for the Anzio landings. Arriving off the beachhead on 22 January 1944, she delivered call fire
support for the troops as they landed. The relative ease experienced during the opening phase at Anzio
however, belied the actual complexion of the campaign. Failing to break out of the beachhead early, the Army
forces were soon surrounded on three sides by German forces which threatened to push them into the sea. The
dogged determination of American infantrymen and the yeoman-like support provided them by the Navy
enabled the troops ashore to hold on until a link-up was made with the Salerno forces in May. During the first
month of that desperate struggle, Woolsey provided gunfire support for the troops ashore and protected the
ships which constituted their lifeline to the outside world. Late in February, however, she departed the Italian
campaign to return to the United States for necessary repairs. After a stop at Gibraltar on 11 February, she
headed via Horta in the Azores to Boston, Mass., where she arrived on the 25th.

Completing her repairs at Boston in mid-March, she conducted refresher training at Casco Bay,
Maine, before heading back to the Mediterranean at the end of the third week in April. She stopped at Gibraltar
on the last day of that month and arrived at Oran on May Day. The ensuing three months saw her operating out
of Oran conducting antisubmarine patrols of the approaches to that port. While operating with a hunting group
composed of Benson (DD-421), Ludlow (DD-438), and Niblack (DD-424) in mid-May, Woolsey experienced her
third and last encounter with a German U-boat. A report of torpedo tracks from a newcomer to the
Mediterranean, U-960, brought DesDiv 25 to the area between Oran and Cartagena early on the 17th to
commence a two-day search and destroy mission. During the night of 18 and 19 May, the four destroyers split
themselves into two search groups and began searching a possible submarine track 10 miles to each side of
it. About an hour and 40 minutes into the mid-watch, the four warships received word that a plane had spotted
the submarine some 10 miles ahead of Niblack and Ludlow. Those two ships charged to the attack; and, by the
time Woolsey arrived on the scene with Benson and Madison (DD-425), the two destroyers had succeeded in
forcing the U-boat to surface after delivering 11 depth charge attacks over the space of four hours.
Immediately, all five destroyers opened fire on the submarine while a British Wellington bomber shifted through
the melee at low altitude to drop depth bombs near U-960. The German ship suffered a number of 5-inch hits
before submerging again. Niblack responded with more depth charges. That attack evidently rung the death
knell for U-960 for she immediately resurfaced, and her crew scrambled off just as she made her final plunge at
about 0715 on the 19th. The destroyers picked up the U-boat's captain and 21 of her crew. While Niblack and
Ludlow received official credit for sinking the enemy submarine no doubt a fair assessment considering their
four-hour attack and the fact that Niblack probably delivered the coup de grace Woolseys 5-inch gunfire
probably contributed significantly to the enemy's destruction.

Following that action, Woolsey continued relatively routine patrols until the end of July when she
began preparations for the invasion of southern France. For that operation, Woolsey was assigned to the
Bombardment Group attached to Camel Force. In that capacity, she supported the landings on the right flank of
the assault area near St. Raphael. During the 15 August invasion, her guns knocked out two German tanks
but, though the Camel area assault proved to be the most heavily contested thrust, the entire southern France
operation constituted little more than a walkover.

Consequently, very soon after the initial invasion Woolsey shifted to supporting the 1st Airborne
Division's drive along the coast toward Italy. She fired upon enemy lines of communication along the coast
particularly roads and supported the liberation of Cannes on 24 August. The destroyer continued her
operations along the Franco-Italian coast until late October. At that time, she headed for Naples for a visit
before returning to Oran, where she arrived on 29 November. The warship was back off the southern coast of
France in mid-December and resumed her interdiction duties until mid-January 1946. At that time, she bade
farewell to the Mediterranean and the 8th Fleet. Following a brief tour of duty patrolling in the Azores, Woolsey
returned to the United States, arriving in New York on 23 February.

After operating along the New England coast until late April and escorting a convoy to Great Britain in
May, the warship returned home to receive a reinforced antiaircraft battery preparatory to her impending
transfer to the war in the Pacific. Late in June, she steamed south to conduct refresher training out of
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Completing that duty on 7 July, she transited the Panama Canal two days later and
reported for duty with the Pacific Fleet. She stopped at San Diego, Calif., from 18 July to 3 August. A week later,
while she was still at Pearl Harbor, Japan capitulated. Late in August, she escorted a convoy carrying
occupation troops to Japan. She stopped at Sasebo until 26 September and then began a voyage during which
she made a series of port visits at Manila, Shanghai, Okinawa, and Saipan.

From the last-named place, woolsey got underway on 3 November to return home. After stops at Pearl Harbor
and San Diego, the destroyer ended her brief interlude with the Pacific Fleet on 29 November when she
retransited the Panama Canal. She arrived in Charleston, S.C., on 4 December and began preparations for
inactivation. On 8 March 1946, the destroyer was placed in commission, in reserve. Eleven months later, on 6
February 1947, she was placed out of commission. Berthed with the Charleston Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet,
for 10 years, Woolsey was towed to Boston in late October of 1957. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1
July 1971, and she was sold to Andy International, Inc., for scrapping on 29 May 1974.